Study On Three-phase Model Of Tourism Destination Brand Equity

With the rapid development of tourism industry in China, managers and operators of tourism destinations pay more and more attentions to the construction and propaganda of their brands, thus brand is deemed as key asset. The concept of brand equity was brought in the researches of brand of tourism destinations since 1980s. Numerous works were done to study brand equity from different perspectives, above them, researches based on tourists were especially rich. However, although a lot of models of brand equity were established, the dimensionalities and the relationships between them were still contradictory. Meanwhile, there are few researches about some key variables of brand equity, such as brand attachment, brand engagement. Moreover, domestic researches are still in the phase of introducing foreign experiences with less original and exploratory researches, and the future research orientations and contents are also vague.Given problems above, a three-phase model of tourist based brand equity of tourism destination is established taking Shandong Province as an example. Following are finds:brand image of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand value; brand awareness of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand value; brand quality of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand value; the influence of brand image to brand trust is insignificant; brand awareness of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand trust; brand quality of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand trust; brand image of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand association; brand awareness of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on association; brand quality of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on association; brand value of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand loyalty; brand trust of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand loyalty; brand association of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand loyalty; brand value of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand attachment; brand trust of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand attachment; brand association of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand attachment; brand loyalty of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand attachment; brand value of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand engagement; brand trust of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand engagement; brand association of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand engagement; brand loyalty of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand engagement; brand attachment of tourism destinations has a significant positive influence on brand engagement. Meanwhile, brand quality of tourism destinations has the largest influence on brand value with brand image having the least influence. Brand quality of tourism destinations has the largest influence on brand trust with brand image having the least influence. Brand quality of tourism destinations has the largest influence on brand association with brand image having the least influence. Brand value and brand association of tourism destinations have the same influence on brand loyalty, which is larger than the influence of brand trust to brand loyalty. Both the direct and indirect influences of brand value to brand attachment, brand trust to brand attachment, brand association to brand attachment, brand value to brand engagement, brand trust to brand engagement, brand association to brand engagement, brand loyalty to brand engagement, are significant. Additionally, research model is divided into three phases including perception phase, judgment phase, and resonance phase. Empirical research also find that the three variables of resonance phase and the relationships between them are of great importance. Hence, researches on brand attachment and brand engagement will be performed in the future. Due to all kinds of reasons, there are some weaknesses and limitations in the paper, and all will be solved in the future researches.